Horses are gigantic creatures. Many weigh in excess of 1,200 pounds and stand more than six feet in height. Over the years, the many miles a horse travels with all that weight adds up on its joints. Eventually, horses face many similar issues as humans do, including joint pain, arthritis, and more.
One of the best ways to help stave off such ailments is by supplementing your horse’s diet with compounds that boost joint health. There are many supplements on the market that combine several of these joint-health compounds, making it easy to help your horse’s joints remain in peak health. All you have to do is decide which joint supplement to use, which can be a bit more difficult to decide than you might think at first.
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ve compared nine of the best joint supplements for horses in the following reviews. This should help to speed up the process of picking one for your horse, as all of the information you need is neatly laid out in this article.
A Quick Look at Our Favorites in 2024
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Best Overall
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LubriSyn HA Horse Joint Supplement |
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Best Value
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AniMed Glucosamine Joint Support Supplement |
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Premium Choice
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Nutramax Cosequin ASU Joint Health Supplement |
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COX VETERINARY Acti-Flex Joint Supplement |
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RICHDEL MSM Joint Support |
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The 9 Best Joint Supplements for Horses
1. LubriSyn HA Hyaluronic Acid Horse Joint Supplement – Best Overall
LubriSyn HA Horse Joint Supplement is our favorite joint supplement for horses. It’s made with hyaluronan, which can help reduce inflammation, prevent rheumatoid arthritis, and offers protective benefits to tissues. Altogether, this means it will help keep your horse functioning at a much higher level, free of joint pain. You’ll notice improvements quite quickly as your horse’s mobility increases due to a reduction in pain.
One problem we’ve discovered with most of the similar joint supplements is that they’re rather difficult to administer. LubriSyn HA is clear and tasteless though, which makes it much easier to feed a horse. When you put it on their food or squeeze it into their mouth, there’s no unpleasant taste to turn your horse off.
This supplement is also a great choice for anyone with multiple horses. It can be hard to supply enough supplements for several horses, but LubriSyn HA Horse Joint Supplement comes in large volumes up to a gallon, which should last quite a while, even with multiple horses to supplement. Granted, it’s a bit pricier than alternatives, but it definitely works.
2. AniMed Glucosamine Joint Support Horse Supplement – Best Value
Keeping your horses’ joints in good health can be difficult and expensive. Most joint supplements for horses are prohibitively pricey, but the AniMed Glucosamine Joint Support Horse Supplement is priced much more reasonably than most. It comes in a 2.25-pound tub for a very affordable price, offering a 70-day supply in a single container.
Despite the low price, this supplement is packed with great compounds. It’s high in omega-3, containing an impressive 20 grams per serving. Each serving also contains 5,000 milligrams of glucosamine, which is shown to be effective at reducing pain and inflammation as well as providing relief from arthritis. Of course, there are several different types of glucosamine, but this supplement uses the two most promising forms, which are glucosamine HCL and glucosamine sulfate.
Like many similar supplements, AniMed is a bit hard to feed your horse. It’s a powder, and horses don’t seem to like the taste. You’ll need to mix it into your horse’s food well to get them to ingest it, but once they do, it has proven to be a very effective supplement for improving joint health, which is why we think it’s the best joint supplement for horses for the money.
3. Nutramax Cosequin ASU Joint Health Supplement – Premium Choice
Sometimes, you get what you pay for. Although the Nutramax Cosequin ASU Joint Health Supplement is priced outrageously high, it’s also a highly effective joint supplement for horses that are loaded with valuable ingredients. Because of the many top-end joint health compounds included in this supplement, it’s able to support joint mobility and protect cartilage while improving overall joint health.
In this blend, you’ll find some joint-health all-stars, including MSM and ASU. Of course, they’re not working alone. These supplements receive a synergistic effect from the high dosage of glucosamine in each serving, which is a bit more than 14,000 milligrams. You’ll also find 2,400 milligrams of chondroitin sulfate in each serving, making this a powerhouse supplement for joint health.
4. COX VETERINARY Lab Acti Flex Joint Supplement
The Acti Flex Joint Supplement works by increasing the amount of synovial fluid in your horse’s joints, which allows the joints to repair areas that are under high stress during running. To do this, a blend of vital joint-support supplements is used, including key players like hyaluronic acid, MSM, chondroitin sulfate, and glucosamine sulfate. Unlike many supplements, you’ll find ample amounts of each ingredient in here, including 8,000 milligrams of glucosamine and 4,000 milligrams of chondroitin.
Thanks to all these great ingredients, this supplement does a superb job of reducing pain and inflammation. But it must have a pretty rough taste because many horses seem to dislike it. It’s rather difficult to get horses to eat this supplement, which you’ll have to manage to see any of the effects. If you manage to get your horse to consume it though, this supplement is highly effective.
5. RICHDEL MSM Joint Support
Available in large buckets up to 10 pounds, the RICHDEL MSM Powder Joint Support is great for reducing pain and inflammation that affects many horses’ joints. It’s 99% pure MSM, which is a derivative of DMSO, a very effective compound that can help to majorly reduce inflammation and pain.
This MSM comes in a crystallized form, and it’s entirely odorless and tasteless. Despite this, it can still be a chore to get a horse to consume it. The taste must not be very appealing. However, it does work quickly, so if you get your horse to take it down, you should notice positive effects within just a few days.
6. Cetyl M Equine Joint Action Formula Supplement
Most of the supplements on this list are priced rather affordably, though the Cetyl M Equine Joint Action Formula is prohibitively expensive. This would be more acceptable if it worked for all horses, but some horses don’t seem to get any positive effects from this supplement.
Still, there’s plenty here to like. This supplement is apple-flavored, which is appealing to horses. Because of this, it tends to be pretty easy to get a horse to eat, which can’t be said about many of the alternative supplements. We also like the blend of important compounds for joint health, like glucosamine and MSM.
The main ingredient though is cetyl myristoleate, which has been shown to reduce pain and inflammation associated with arthritis, though research on this compound isn’t nearly as extensive as the research on other compounds that are known to boost joint health. We’d prefer to see more of the well-proven compounds instead, but at least this supplement contains ample amounts of each active ingredient.
7. Manna Pro Rapid Flex Fast Acting Joint Supplement
The Rapid Flex Fast-Acting Joint Supplement from Manna Pro comes in a four-pound bucket, though it’s about twice the price of other supplements in the same volume. Still, it’s a fast-acting supplement that provides relief for inflamed and uncomfortable joints. It’s a natural blend made with proven ingredients and nine unique herbs. Some of the proven ingredients include chondroitin sulfate, hyaluronic acid, and glucosamine HCL, which are staples of any joint-health supplement.
Like all supplements, this one is useless if you can’t get your horse to ingest it. Manna Pro claims that this supplement is extremely palatable, but it seems that most horses don’t agree. That said, it’s easy enough to mix into your horse’s grain, even if horses aren’t nearly as fond of the anise flavor as Manna Pro would like you to believe.
8. Corta-Flx Equine Pellets Joint Flex Supplements
These pellets come in a 2.5-pound tub, and because they’re not a powder, they tend to be a bit easier to administer than some joint supplements. They mix well into grain and horses don’t seem bothered by them. Moreover, they contain several proven ingredients such as chondroitin and hyaluronic acid. The problem is, there is not enough of each ingredient to do too much. You’ll find just 50 milligrams of hyaluronic acid and only 1,000 milligrams of chondroitin in here.
Other supplements are available in similar quantities with higher usable dosages of the important ingredients for about half the price of this one. So, why should you spend the extra money on the Corta-Flx Equine Pellets? Unless they’re the only ones your horse will consume, we don’t have a good reason for you.
9. Majesty’s Flex Wafers Joint Support Horse Supplement
An issue we had with most of the joint supplements we’ve tried with our horses is that they’re generally quite difficult to administer. Most are either a liquid or powder and getting your horse to ingest it can prove to be an uphill battle, even if the supplement has no taste or odor. Majesty’s Flex Joint Support Wafers seemed to have a good solution. Instead of a powder or liquid, this supplement comes in the form of wafer treats that should be easy to feed a horse.
Unfortunately, these wafers are more like globs. This makes it hard for your horse to keep the wafer in its mouth, and many horses drop the treats while trying to consume them. Of course, it seems like some of them dropped the wafers on purpose due to the texture because they weren’t interested in trying anymore!
Still, these wafers are packed with great ingredients that reduce inflammation and improve range of motion. You’ll find glucosamine, MSM, and chondroitin in here, which covers the most important joint supplements. However, they could stand to be present in higher dosages.
Buyer’s Guide: Buying the Best Joint Supplements for Horses
Picking a joint supplement for your horse should be an easy task, or at least that’s how it seems. Just find the supplement with the right ingredients and you’ll have a winner. The only problem is, how are you supposed to know which ingredients you’re looking for? That’s where this buyer’s guide comes into play. In it, we’re going to give you a rundown of the most important and proven joint support compounds that you want to see in any joint supplement for horses.
The Major Joint Support Compounds
There are many different ingredients and compounds that you might find in a joint supplement. However, not every ingredient is a proven winner when it comes to boosting joint health. But the following four ingredients are research-backed and can be trusted with your horse’s joint health, as well as your own.
1. Glucosamine
Glucosamine is a sugar that you’ll find in the fluid surrounding your joints. Most supplemental glucosamine comes from shellfish, but it can be synthesized as well. Glucosamine can help to slow the breakdown of cartilage. It can also help reduce pain and inflammation, particularly the sort that’s associated with arthritis.
2. Chondroitin
Chondroitin is found in cartilage and can provide similar benefits as glucosamine. It helps to reduce inflammation and pain. Furthermore, chondroitin can slow the spread of joint and disk degeneration while also reducing pain that generally accompanies arthritis.
3. MSM
People take MSM and give it to their pets for a wide variety of reasons, including arthritis, bursitis, rosacea, and more. Not much evidence shows MSM’s effectiveness at treating these ailments, though it has been shown to reduce pain and swelling from arthritis. It has also been observed that MSM can be effective against repetitive stress injuries and can even help to speed up exercise recovery.
4. Hyaluronic Acid
Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring compound that acts as a lubricant and cushion in joints as well as other bodily tissues. It can reduce pain and swelling from arthritis and is used in many joint supplements for humans and animals alike.
Conclusion
Joint supplements for horses aren’t much different from joint supplements for dogs or humans. They generally contain the same active ingredients and provide similar relief, though horse supplements often use these ingredients in higher dosages. As you’ve read in our reviews, there are many options to choose from, but there are three that we trust the most.
Overall, our favorite is the LubriSyn HA hyaluronic acid horse joint supplement. It’s clear and tasteless, making it easy to administer. Plus, it comes in large volumes up to a gallon. The hyaluronan in this blend offers fast-acting and long-lasting relief for sore and inflamed joints.
For the best value, it’s hard to beat the AniMed Glucosamine 5000 Joint Support Powder. You get 2.25 pounds in a tub for a very reasonable price, offering 70 days of supplementation. This blend contains two types of glucosamine and loads of omega three to keep your horse’s joints functioning free of pain and inflammation.
Finally, the Nutramax Cosequin ASU powder is our premium pick. Packed with high dosages of proven compounds like glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, and ASU, it protects cartilage and improves joint mobility.
- Related Read: 10 Best Horse Supplements – Reviews & Top Picks
Featured Image Credit: Helena Lopes, Pexels
